I think this was probably Matt’s favorite of all the recipes we tested for Jess’s cookbook. And if you know how much Matt likes brownies, maybe that shouldn’t be surprising. On the other hand, what you may not know is that Matt loves brownies made from a box mix, but generally doesn’t really like brownies made from scratch. Invariably, they are too cakey, too chocolatey, too gooey, too something, and if he wants a treat, he’d rather you pull out the Betty Crocker box (or he’ll do it himself and hopefully learn from his mistakes and not forget to add one of the eggs and the water again … yes that’s right, Matt added only one egg and the oil to a box of brownie mix one time … not pretty). But these brownies from Julie Badger even Matt enjoyed, so I think they’re a keeper. I think the key may have been the secret ingredient spoonful of peanut butter. They really don’t come out tasting very peanut buttery, but I think it does just add that extra something.

Julie Badger’s Brownies

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoons salt
6 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
Large spoonful of creamy peanut butter (1/3 to 1/2 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 9” square cake pan with Pam.

Melt chocolate and butter over low heat. Stir in sugar, eggs, flour, salt, and vanilla. Add peanut butter if desired.

Spread in pan and bake 30 – 40 min. until dry on top and almost firm to touch. Do not overbake.

This is another recipe I’m recycling from the cookbook I made for Jessica.  This one is from Rachael Ray’s 30-Minute Get Real Meals, a cookbook Jessica had when were in college (that I think I sort of appropriated — oops!). We made it several times when we lived together on Clark Street, and now it’s a last-minute staple for Matt and me. It’s tasty but also very easy. When I took these pictures, I served it with Jessica’s mom’s roasted green beans, so maybe you can guess what’s coming up next?

Swedish Meatballs
Adapted from Rachael Ray’s 30-Minute Get Real Meals

1 lb. frozen turkey meatballs
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups beef stock
1 Tablespoon red currant or grape jelly
1 cup heavy cream or sour cream (I almost always use sour cream, but I think Jess used cream)
~3 Tablespoons flour
1/2 lb. wide egg noodles
2 Tablespoons butter
a small handful parsley, chopped

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the meatballs (still frozen is fine) and brown on all sides.

Add the stock, jelly, cream, and flour. Bring to a bubble and reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, or a little longer, until the sauce is thickened to your liking.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the egg noodle and cook until just tender. Drain the noodles and toss with butter and chopped parsley.

Serve the noodles topped with meatballs and their sauce. (Rachael also says to garnish with chopped gherkins, but we never have.)

Even if I’m not feeding the blog, I have still been cooking, though a little less than usual, and definitely less-complicated than usual. Here’s a recipe I meant to share a long time ago. It’s a combination of a recipe Mom has been using a lot lately to brine pork chops (I’m not sure where she got it), and a recipe from one of the last issues of Gourmet (tear!). It’s actually super easy and fast, requiring hardly any hands on work, but its presentation and taste is much more impressive than the amount of work that goes into it.

It does require a bit of advanced planning because of the brining step, but you don’t want to leave that out. I used to never cook pork chops because they always seemed to dry out on me, but the brining keeps them juicy and tender. (Interestingly – I recently learned that the way this works has to do at least partly with the motor protein myosin, which I’m studying; if you want to know how, ask me about it sometime.) It’s similar to marinating, but in a very high salt solution. Because it’s so much salt, you only leave it for a couple hours, instead of the several hours or overnight that you might normally marinate something. I haven’t tried, but I think it would probably get too salty if you left it longer than that. (If someone tries it and it works, let me know.

Another nice thing about this recipe is it’s easy to scale up or down — I first made it for just myself when Matt was in Taiwan, but making it for several folks is easy too. The pork chops are great with some sauteed greens, perfect for this time of year!

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Let’s just ignore the fact that I haven’t put anything up here in over a month and just move on with our lives, shall we? I know it’s getting late to share this with you, but maybe you can still find a few end of the season stone fruits left at your market? If not, I could imagine trying a similar concept with some upcoming fall fruit, like maybe pears, or persimmons.

I got the idea of adding creme fraiche to a pie from Smitten Kitchen, who in turn got it from Martha Stewart. I really liked the way it thickened things up and made them a bit richer and tangier, and a little less sweet. I used nectarines and blueberries, since that’s what we had on hand, and it was a lovely combination, but there are many other combinations you could try that might be more seasonally appropriate. I’m just now thinking maybe pears and cranberries might be good, when the cranberries start popping up before too much longer. Is it really fall already?!

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Matt’s been out of town for the past week (but is coming home tonight! yay!), so I’ve been having to feed just myself.  The vast majority of the time, we eat dinner together, and even when we don’t, it’s usually because there’s something going on, so I don’t often cook for just myself.  But, I didn’t want to eat takeout or peanut butter and jelly for a whole week, so I’ve been practicing cooking in smaller portions.

Cooking for one can be a challenge: most recipes come for four or even six, cans of things are usually too big for one person, and many ingredients are hard to buy in smaller quantities.  And, cooking can just seem like a lot of trouble when there’s only one mouth to feed.  Many of these are problems for cooking for two people also, but when there’s two of us, cooking a recipe for four isn’t so bad, since I like to eat leftovers for lunch anyway.  However, I didn’t want to have to eat the same thing for three or four days, so my usual leftovers strategy wasn’t going to work for just me.

Despite these challenges, I actually had some fun cooking for only myself, and found that it had some upsides: you can eat the things your usual dining partner doesn’t care too much for, you can be a bit more creative and risky with trying combinations that might not work out, and if you end up eating a little less healthy or balanced a meal, there’s no one to judge you or give you funny looks.

I’m the first to admit that I don’t have a lot of experience in this department, but when I said I was actually enjoying cooking for myself, my cousin Bethany was interested to hear what I was making, so I thought others might be, too.  So here’s the “tips” that worked for me (at least this week) and a list of what I made this week with links to the recipes, some my own, and some from others.

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